1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to establishing computer-based user communities, and more particularly to establishing computer user communities based on user activities on the Web.
2. Description of the Related Art
The World Wide Web and other information repositories such as online databases afford quick access to a large amount of information. Users typically interact only with the information, however, and generally do not share a sense of community with other users who might nevertheless be interested in the same topics. In other words, most social interactions using the Web are asynchronous (e.g., a user reads what another user has written sometime earlier), and lack the richness of ordinary communication. The present invention understands that Web users as well as content providers would benefit from creating a sense of community in cyberspace, for many of the same economic and psychic reasons that physical markets such as shopping malls benefit both store owners and shoppers by creating a sense of personalized community.
Isolated social places currently exist on the Web, but they suffer inadequacies with respect to effectively promoting meaningful social interaction. One type of social place is centered on a single document, such as a chat room. Users access the document and by means of xe2x80x9cchatxe2x80x9d technology converse with each using their computers. The drawback with single-document social places, however, is two-fold. Under some circumstances, there may be few if any companion users in, e.g., a chat room who would be appropriate social partners for a person wishing to engage in social activity. Indeed, although present in the chat room with each other, users might very well share little if any commonality with each other. Currently, there is no way to account for this fact. On the other hand, many thousands of users might be clustered around a single document. It will readily be appreciated, however, that social interactions in a crowded place can be as difficult to strike up as in an empty place.
A second type of Web community is one that is based on a predefined grouping (i.e., a xe2x80x9cbuddy listxe2x80x9d). Examples of such communities are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,796,393 and 5,727,950. In these systems, communication is established between members of a predefined group, e.g., users of America Online (AOL)(copyright), or students that are pre-grouped by an instructor. In any case, these systems do not use indicia that can be expected to be related to user preferences, but rather rely on arbitrary groupings of a disparate collection of users who might in fact share little or no social interests with each other.
As understood by the present invention, a good gauge of a user""s social preferences and/or characteristics can be had from the user""s computer-based activities. As an example, suppose that children of various ages access a Web page related to dinosaurs. The present invention postulates that fifth graders might use similar paths as each other to arrive at the Web page, whereas ninth graders might, on the whole, take a different path to arrive at the page, and that this information can be used to place the fifth graders in communication with each other, with whom they are more likely to share common interests than with ninth graders.
As recognized by the present invention, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,796,952 and 5,727,129, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, provide methods for monitoring and storing activities of users of networked information. The referenced methods do so for reasons other than for promoting social interaction, however, and thus do not consider or recognize that such user activity-based information might be advantageously used to facilitate social interactions on computer networks, such as the Web.
The present invention has carefully considered the above problems and has provided the solution set forth herein.
A computer-implemented method is disclosed for establishing at least one communication grouping that includes at least first and second client computers based on user activity with respect to an information repository, such as the World Wide Web. The method includes storing respective first and second histories of user activities undertaken with the first and second client computers with respect to the information repository. As intended by the present invention, the user activities can include accessing at least two documents in the repository, inputting at least one query, and establishing a pattern of document access. The communication grouping is established based on the first and second histories of user activities. In a preferred embodiment, the communication grouping is established when the activities of the first client computer match the activities of the second client computer in accordance with predefined criteria.
Preferably, a chat room is established between computers in a grouping. Also, communication windows including chat windows are displayed on respective monitors associated with the client computers. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the communication windows display icons that represent client computers in the communication grouping.
In another aspect, a computer system includes at least two client computers communicating with the World Wide Web. Each client computer is associated with a client proxy, and the client proxy accesses, for each client computer, user activity information that represents at least one of: a group of Web pages accessed by the client computer, a pattern of Web page access established by the client computer, and query terms input to the client computer. A place server receives the user activity information and based thereon determines whether to establish a communication grouping among the client computers.
In still another aspect, a computer program storage device establishes a client proxy that includes a program of instructions. In turn, the program of instructions includes structure to undertake the following method. For at least one client computer, a history of user activities undertaken with the client computer with respect to an information repository such as the World Wide Web is stored. The user activities are among the group of activities consisting of: accessing at least two documents in the repository, inputting at least one query, and establishing a pattern of document access. The history is communicated to a place server module, and a window is displayed that represents companion client computers in a communication grouping based on the histories of the client computers.
In yet another aspect, a computer program storage device establishes a place server including a program of instructions that in turn includes structure to undertake the following method. From each of plural client computers, a respective history of user activities undertaken with the client computer with respect to an information repository such as the World Wide Web is received. The user activities are among the group of activities consisting of: accessing at least two documents in the repository, inputting at least one query, and establishing a pattern of document access. The method also includes, for client computers having histories that match each other in accordance with predefined criteria, establishing a communication grouping.
The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which: